It is located on the northern slope of Monte d’Alma east of Scarlino, in the territory of the Grosseto Metalliferous Hills and known for the large deposits of pyrite intensely exploited until the early eighties of the twentieth century.
The territory of Gavorrano appears to have already been inhabited in the Etruscan period, as evidenced by the remains of various necropolises found in flat areas at the foot of Monte Calvo and dating back to the 7th century BC. (Poggio Pelliccia, San Germano, Santa Teresa), probably burial areas of settlements that have now disappeared and depended on the city-state of Vetulonia.
Gavorrano is mentioned for the first time in a document of 1164, when Federico I granted Count Alberto degli Alberti di Mangona to take possession of the feud again. The son of Alberto IV, Rainaldo Alberti di Mangona, governed Gavorrano until his death, when the Pannocchieschi d’Elci counts then took over, in the mid-13th century, who submitted the village first to the Municipality of Volterra, and subsequently to that of Massa Marittima (1320). During the struggles between Massa and Siena, the village of Gavorrano ended up being conquered by the city of the Palio, even if for a certain period, starting from 1379, it remained under the control of the Malavolti family. In 1465 Gavorrano was definitively ceded to the Republic of Siena and inexorably followed the fortunes of the Sienese state, before being annexed to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany in the mid-16th century.
After centuries of depopulation and anonymity, Gavorrano imposed its history on a national level after the unification of Italy, when in 1898 Francesco Alberti discovered an important deposit of pyrite near the town. Gavorrano became a mining center of absolute importance, possessing one of the most important pyrite mines in Europe, and experienced a strong demographic increase in the years of mining activity, as well as considerable urban development with the birth of new modern villages (Bagno, Filare, Crickets, Potash). In 1960 the territory of Scarlino and the coast (Puntone, Portiglioni) detached from Gavorrano to form an independent municipality. With the closure of the mines in 1981, a significant decline in population was recorded; however, thanks to the development of the old extraction sites and the presence in the municipal area of historic villages of artistic interest (Caldana, Giuncarico, Ravi), Gavorrano has rediscovered itself as recently, an important tourist resort in the Grosseto Maremma.
Things to see in Gavorrano:
• Walls of Gavorrano: built during the 12th century, during the 14th century they were restructured by the Sienese with the construction of some guard towers. They still stand out today in the fabric of the historic center two different concentric wall circuits. The gateway to the village is the so-called Porta di Sotto, in squared sandstone ashlars which opens to the south.
•Walls of Caldana: built in the early Middle Ages to defend the historic village, they have a quadrangular shape, with the presence, along the walls, of four imposing corner bastions. The walls today have been incorporated in large part by the buildings around the church of San Biagio.
• Walls of Giuncarico: built during the 11th century, they remained intact without modifications for centuries, until in modern times some renovations incorporated the wall structure to external walls of other buildings. Today the only access to the village is through the Porta del Castello, which opens in the form of an all-round arch at the base of the bell tower of the adjacent church of Sant’Egidio.
•Church of San Giuliano, the parish church of Gavorrano located in Piazza Buozzi, was originally dedicated to San Gusmè, as stated in a document of 1321, while already in 1529 it was already indicated as San Giuliano. Completely restructured and modified over the years between the 17th and 18th centuries, today it has three naves with a semicircular apse; the gabled façade with central rose window and decorative hanging arches dates back to 1927. Inside there are valuable works including a marble Madonna and Child by Giovanni d’Agostino (1336).
• Castel di Pietra, the ruins of an imposing early medieval castle located on a cliff overlooking the Bruna valley, at an altitude of 172 metres, it was the property of the counts Pannocchieschi, before passing to the Malavolti (1328). The castle is linked to the legend of the “Salto della Contessa”, i.e. the murder within these walls of Dante’s character Pia de’ Tolomei by of her husband Nello di Inghiramo Pannocchieschi, eager to remain a widower so as to be able to marry Margherita Aldobrandeschi. However, while the marriage between Nello and Margherita is historically ascertained, just as it is certain that Nello also lived in this castle, the story of Pia de’ Tolomei nevertheless remains in the halo of legend.
•Necropolis of Santa Teresa Nuova, locality located in a flat area between Potassa and Castel di Pietra, where a necropolis with five tumulus tombs was discovered between 2005 and 2007 dating back to the VII-VI centuries BC.
• Tumulus of Poggio Pelliccia, located in the countryside near Castellaccia, it is a monumental Etruscan tomb, probably of an aristocratic family from nearby Vetulonia, dating back to around the middle of the 7th century BC
The grave goods found here, with bronzes, goldsmith’s art, historiated ostrich eggs, Corinthian, Greek-Oriental and Attic ceramics, are kept in the Isidoro Falchi Civic Archaeological Museum.
• Necropolis of San Germano, located along the course of the Sovata stream north of Giuncarico, dates back to the 6th century BC. and was probably dependent on a nearby village, now disappeared, satellite center of the Etruscan city of Vetulonia. The typology of the tombs of the necropolis is the mound one.
•Bagno di Gavorrano, an ancient spa center downstream from Gavorrano, which has now become the true center of the municipality, being the most populated and the best equipped with numerous facilities and services. The only elements of a historical nature are the buildings dating back to the Fascist period, including the so-called “palazzoni”, on which cracks are still visible in part where once mottos praising the regime were posted, and a nearby building which was once the headquarters of the National Fascist Party.
Gavorrano natural mining park
It is a naturalistic and industrial archeology park.
The mining activity in Gavorrano began in 1898, when Francesco Alberti from Gavorrano discovered the first pyrite deposit in Fonte Vecchia, a few meters from the village.
It is estimated that the quantity of pyrite extracted in the total is about 27,000,000 tons. From the subsoil, 30% of the Gavorrano pyrite feeds the Casone di Scarlino plant, active since 1962, for the production of sulfuric acid, oleum and iron oxide pellets, and for the rest the other factories of Montecatini.
The Parco delle Rocce, with the recovery of the galleries and the construction of the entrance to the museum consisting of the ticket office, storage rooms and the large cone of the model room, was built in a quarry of limestone of Monte Calvo the so-called Teatro delle Rocce. The mining settlement of Ravi Marchi was also partially recovered. With a decree of the Ministry of the Environment dated February 28, 2002, the project was incorporated into the Colline Metallifere national park. The official inauguration of the entire naturalistic mining park was held on July 19, 2003.
The museum-park is included in the provincial museum network Musei di Maremma.
The first mining-naturalistic itinerary of the Parco delle Rocce consists of the so-called Museum in the tunnel, a modern underground multimedia museum which describes the phases of work in the mine strong> and the life of miners since the fifties of the twentieth century. The entire gallery is furnished with period photos, a collection of machines, tools, clothing and objects from the miner’s everyday life, as well as installations that reconstruct peculiar aspects of mineral excavation techniques: the “cage”, or the lift operated by a winch for the descent and ascent of personnel through the shaft; the “sprint” (the breaking down of the rock through the use of explosives); tunnel safety armor; the workings of “mucking up” with compressed air shovels.
Ravi (fraction of Gavorrano)
The village of Ravi is located on the eastern ridge of Monte Calvo, which separates the lower Ombrone and Bruna valleys from the smaller ones of Pecora and Cornia, in the Grosseto Maremma.
The locality arose during the early Middle Ages, almost certainly during the eighth century, as a possession of the bishops of Roselle, the first name was Ravi di Maremma.
Around the year 1000 it was handed over to the monks of the Sestinga abbey. Only during the 13th century did it become a temporary domain of the Aldobrandeschi family; in the second half of this century, in fact, the center passed into the hands of the Pannocchieschi.
In the 15th century the locality of Ravi became part of the Republic of Siena, under whose jurisdiction it remained until the mid-16th century, when the entire territory was united to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany.
The Castle of Ravi, already mentioned in a document of 784, appears today as incorporated in the wall structures of artificial buildings, and its circular perimeter can be identified. Among the various buildings leaning against the structure, one can be recognized in stone with a sloping base protruding from the south-east, perhaps the ancient keep.
Caldana (fraction of Gavorrano)
The village of Caldana is located on the flat back of a south-eastern hill of Monte Calvo, in an area rich in limestone rocks historically used in the production of marble.
The town was built before the 11th century as a possession of the bishops of Roselle, who subsequently ceded it to the monks of the Sestinga abbey. Originally the locality was called Caldana di Ravi, given its secondary importance compared to its neighbour
The Church of San Biagio, is the parish church of the hamlet, was built in the 16th century on a probable 13th-century layout, with a facade attributed to the school of the Renaissance architect Antonio da Sangallo the Elder. In 1828 the bell tower was built and in 1970 the whole structure underwent a considerable restoration work. Inside, among the various works, we note the fresco of the main altar by Giuseppe Nicola Nasini with San Biagio bishop and San Guglielmo in adoration of the Crucifix.